Linket, esports and a theme park

ABSTRACT

A theme park permits interactions between visitors and remote viewers in Mixed Reality. The park has devices controllable by visitors and viewers. A viewer uses an app to interact. A visitor can use an app on a mobile device. Viewers watch or follow a visitor (akin to esports). A viewer can change physical aspects at the park. Including opening and closing a door or window, moving a vehicle, adjusting a fountain. Visitor and viewer can form a team. A viewer can aid or hinder a visitor. Visitor and viewer can trade virtual assets. The park makes a movie for a theatre. The viewer watches the movie and captures items that the visitor uses in the park. There can be multiple Mixed Realities.

TECHNICAL FIELD

A theme park and devices in the park.

BACKGROUND

Theme parks have exhibits or themes. These are interactive experiencesfor visitors. Parks struggle to make unique and more memorableexperiences so visitors will keep visiting, as well as having othersvisit the park for the first time. The competition is other parks andother recreational pursuits, including computer games.

A problem a theme park can have is the physical size. There are legallimits on maximum attendance. While the marginal cost of an extravisitor might be small, it is expensive in terms of land and buildingsfor a park to significantly expand its footprint.

Another problem is that visiting a park is too expensive for manypeople. In terms of travel time and accommodation. Or also if the peopleare in less developed countries, with lower incomes compared to theincomes of most visitors.

Esports have become popular. Fans watch players play computer games. Thefans might watch on their own computers (mobile phones, laptops, PCs . .. ) via an aggregated viewing platform like Twitch™. The platform showslive or recorded video of games. The players are playing (or haveplayed) the games. The fans are remote from the players. In general, thefans are also remote from each other. They can be at many differentlocations in the world.

In another esports modality, players and fans are in a stadium. The gameis also broadcast so that fans not in the stadium can watch remotely.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Divisional based on the original application filed18 Dec. 2018 with the application Ser. No. 16/350,658 and the title of“Linket, esports and a theme park”. The present application claims thepriority date of 18 Dec. 2018.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows the prior art of a linket.

FIG. 2 shows a park with a visitor, a viewer and devices.

FIG. 3 shows a viewer app, with themed areas of a park.

FIG. 4 shows a viewer app with suggestions for player Smith.

FIG. 5 shows a visitor in front of 2 cupboards, 1 with an item.

FIG. 5a shows the item rotated with a narrower cross section.

FIG. 6 shows a map of the park and a suggested Field of View.

FIG. 7 shows a visitor near a bird cage.

FIG. 8 shows a screen of viewer options.

FIG. 9 shows interaction between a viewer game and a visitor game.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart of reification of a virtual object to a realobject.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart of anti-reification of a real object to avirtual object.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart of a viewer in a theatre getting a discount on atrailer.

FIG. 13 shows a viewer in a theatre and a visitor in the park.

FIG. 14 is a flow chart of a viewer in a theatre sending an item to avisitor.

FIG. 15 is a flow chart of viewer and visitor repeatedly interacting.

FIG. 16 is a multiple Mixed Reality scenario.

FIG. 17 shows players in different games sending commands to a device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

What we claim as new and desire to secure by letters patent is set forthin the following claims.

This application has the following sections:

1] Linket;

2] Theme park;

3] Viewers affecting the park;

4] Other venues and activities;

5] Followers;

6] Skill levels;

7] Viewer games;

8] Reification;

9] Moving viewer;

10] Movie and park;

11] Anti-cheating;

12] Multiple Mixed Realities (MMR);

1] Linket;

FIG. 1 shows the prior art of a deep link and linkets. Item 11 is a deeplink as commonly implemented. It is a string consisting of 2 parts. Thefirst is an id (“bookseller5”) of an app in a mobile app store. Thesecond is an id of a good or service being offered for sale. The exampleid is an ISBN of a book. The app example is an app made by a bookseller.The “bookseller5” represents an actual alphanumeric id assigned to theapp by the mobile app store. The id of the good or service can beconsidered to be a SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) or a page id. The latter iswhere the app is effectively a collection of items for sale, each itemon its own page.

The use case of item 11 is as follows. A user Nicky is using her mobiledevice and running a first app. That app shows something that is themain purpose of the app. It also shows an ad for a specific book. Thisbook might be considered appropriate given the context of what Nicky isseeing in the app. The ad is a deep link functionally equivalent to item11. Nicky clicks the deep link, or a visual representation of the deeplink. This triggers her phone to search its apps to see if thebookseller app given in the deep link is already present. If so, thebookseller app is run and it starts up not in the generic landing pagebut the page for the given book. If the bookseller app is not on herphone, the phone goes to the app store and starts the download of thebookseller app. It asks for Nicky's permission. Assuming she agrees,when the app is downloaded, it is automatically started in the page forthe given book.

The deep link of item 11 solves 2 problems. The first is the manualsearch of the app store. Currently the Android™ and iPhone™ stores have2 million apps each. Every manual step in searching the app store is asource of error. The user is fragile. She (likely) has no investment intime or money in using a specific new app. If she makes a mistake in thesearch, she can abandon her efforts. The second problem is that when anapp is run by double clicking the app on the mobile device, it starts inits generic landing page. Nicky then has to search manually in the pagefor the item. Overall, both problems reduce the revenue made by the app.

The above use of a deep link is for a person interacting with an appserver. Person to machine. To make a transaction.

Items 12 and 13 were invented by one of the applicants (Boudville) in2015. Item 13 is a Iinket™. It is a Unicode string that is shown in awebpage or app as a clickable entity. Analogous to a web domain. One usecase is as follows. Imagine a gamer Jill. She want to make money byletting others watch her play a game (against computer opponents, say).Or by charging others to play her. She obtains a linket [Jill Gamer]from a firm running a linket Registry.

The linket itself is the contents inside the square brackets. The use ofthe brackets is an arbitrary choice of leading and trailing delimiters.Equivalent might be <Jill Gamer>. The delimiters do not have to bematching symbols, like %% Jill Gamer>. Here also, the number of leadingand trailing delimiters might be different. The main issue here is thata specific choice be made for the delimiters. So users and softwaremight recognise the linket.

It is not a requirement for both leading and trailing delimiters. Thecurrent use of hashtags only has a leading delimiter (“#”). But thismeans that there is no whitespace inside a hashtag, making it harder toread. URLs also have no trailing delimiter, and the same problem.Linkets having a trailing delimiter means that whitespace is possible,as shown in FIG. 1.

Jill can send [Jill Gamer] as a clickable link in email. A recipient,Bob, reads it in his mobile browser. He clicks [Jill Gamer]. A querygoes from his mobile device to the Registry. The Registry replies withthe deep link of item 12. Bob's device runs the deep link. It looks foror downloads the game app, Madcow, from the app store. The game is runautomatically. It connects to a port at 10.11.12.13. At this address isJill's game, listening for a connection. Her game might be anotherinstance of Bob's game. The game could have several versions. Jill'sversion could be for a PC, on which she plays. While Bob's version couldbe for mobile.

Bob can now watch Jill. Or play her. A key point is that Jill could beusing her mobile device. Her device connects to the Internet via a hotspot or phone carrier. It is assigned a temporary IP address (includinga port). But her linket, like a domain, is unvarying. The linket is herbrand, which she promotes to the world.

The interaction of the linket differs qualitatively from the deep linkof item 11. The latter is for a person to server. The linket is for aperson to person live interaction.

2] Park;

There are 3 meanings to “park” that we use. One is a park like GoldenGate Park in San Francisco, with landscapes and owned by the government.Another is an amusement park, with rides like rollercoasters, dodgemcars, go carts, carousels etc. A third is a theme park. For example,Universal Studios Corp. has a Harry Potter theme and a Back to theFuture theme in Los Angeles. For brevity we will use “park” primarily tomean a theme park. But possibly the other types.

Visitors go thru the park and are entertained by a theme. See FIG. 2. Itshows visitor Drew 201 with his mobile device 202. He is in park 200.Outside the park, is Laura 210 with her device 211, which could bemobile or non-mobile. In general, she is not in the same city as Drewand she does not know him. There could be others with Drew, but forsimplicity, we currently consider only Drew as a visitor.

Near Drew can be cameras 203 and 205. There could be more. These can beemplaced in fixed locations. Some might be attached to moving devices.Drew could be walking, or sitting in a static location. Or in a movingdevice. Drew might appear in the Field of View (FoV) of a camera.

Near Drew can be an electronic screen 204, showing images orinformation. There might be several screens. So far, devices 203-205 canbe considered purely electronic devices.

Near Drew can be an electromechanical fountain 206. As with the camerasand screens, this is controlled by the park. The fountain can be turnedon or off remotely. When running, the volume of water in the jets andthe heights of the jets can also be controlled remotely. Associated withthe fountain might be a loudspeaker playing music, possibly synchronisedwith the height of the jets. There might also be lights of differentcolours shining on or through the fountain. Loudspeaker and lights canalso be remotely controlled.

Device 207 is a chest of drawers. Some or all drawers might be lockedand unlocked remotely. A drawer might have mechanical actuators that canopen and close the drawer. Equivalently, instead of a chest of drawers,there might be a filing cabinet.

Door 208 might be a door that can open and close without manualoperation by Drew. Or it could have a lock that is remotely controlled(in part). One type of door 208 could be a garage or warehouse roll updoor.

Cart 209 can be controlled remotely. It could carry Drew and others.

Another device (not shown) could be a platform that rises or lowers fromthe ground. (This includes a lift.) Or it could be extruded or retractedfrom a wall. It could be an HVAC device, or part of one, that influencestemperature or air flow. It could be a wave generator that affects theflow of water in an aquatic environment. It could be shutters for awindow, that open and close. It could be a window that opens and closes.

The remote influencing of air flow can extend to controlling the rate ofrotation (angular velocity) of a fan.

Another device could control the release of aromas in the vicinity ofDrew. Triggers his olfactory sense.

Another device could be a loudspeaker whose volume or other audioparameter is adjusted. Or whose direction that the speaker is pointed incan be remotely controlled.

Another device might make a change detectable via tactile or hapticmeans by Drew. For example, there might be a panel in a wall that can bepushed in by Drew, where sometimes it is remotely controlled so that itcannot be pushed.

Another device might be a camera whose lens can be adjusted to pan, tiltand zoom. Or it might be a camera that can be moved, like along a rail.

Another device could move on the ground, or on a ceiling or wall. Forexample, it might be a giant spider that crawls along a wall andceiling. Or it might be an elf that walks on the ground.

Another device might be a seat (that Drew sits on) that vibrates.Similar to what some movie theatres have.

Another device could be an enclosure (cage?) that holds a real or fakeanimal, where the enclosure could be opened to release the animal nearDrew.

Another device might be a container holding a clue, perhaps a physicalgadget. The device might open and release the clue depending on actionsby Drew and others. A variant is where the clue is actually a reward(like a stuffed toy or a bottle of wine).

Another device could be a drone. Presenting an outdoors panoramic viewof the park. The drone has a camera (or several). The drone and itscameras can be controlled by the park to focus on various sections.

There could be multiple such devices.

At present some or all of these cases exist. One characteristic is thatthe controlling of the devices by the park is largely based on presetdecisions and perhaps by the actions of the visitors. It can be usefulto the park if the experiences are made more unique. Giving incentivefor visitors to come back for new experiences. But there is anotherissue. Parks have advertising costs for billboards, TV commercials andthe like. In part to sustain brand awareness and to bring in newvisitors.

Our application combines the parks with another recentphenomenon—esports. In the last 10 years it has become clear that peoplewill pay to watch others play computer games. They will pay to watch inperson (in a stadium) and remotely. It is the latter idea that is usedhere. The park uses cameras 203 and 205 to show static images and videoto Laura. It can also use microphones (not shown in FIG. 2) to pick upaudio and transmit to Laura's device. The microphones can be installedby the park in the vicinity of visitors. They can pick up words spokenby the visitors, and audio emitted by the park's loudspeakers.

In terms of visitors' privacy, the park can indicate to visitors thatcertain sections of the park have these cameras and microphones. Andwhen the visitors go there, they consent to such uses.

An elaboration is possible concerning visitors' images. When a camerashows a visitor, it has software doing image recognition to detect this.It can blur the visitor's face. Or it can replace the visitor's face oralso the rest of the visitor by a “skin”—an artificial image. Skins area common concept in gaming, where a player can pick a skin. Those usesare often where the entire environment in the game is artificial. In thepark, the skin can be a software overlay that follows the real personaround in the video.

This can be extended. When Drew entered the area, he can have on hismobile device an app made by the park. The app could use a linket like[Medieval Visitor] if the theme is a medieval village. When Drew clickedthe linket, the app was installed and run on his device. The app couldoffer him a choice of various cartoon personas—traveller, publican,smith, royal lady, barmaid, baker. (The persona he picks could be maleor female.) Then in his wanderings thru the themed area, the videoreplaces him by his persona.

Or Drew downloaded the app without clicking on a linket. The park couldhave used other means to induce him to do this.

The app could let him have a nickname. In addition to his persona name,or in exclusive-or to it. So if there is a persona “Smith” (a metalworker), Drew might be “Wanderer Smith”.

A third possibility is if Drew already has a linket, like [Mage Boy],for his activities outside the park. It is straightforward for thetextual content of the linket to be copied into his nickname for thepark theme.

There is another option if Drew has a linket. A linket maps to a deeplink, which maps to an app and his mobile device address. The park letsDrew connect his linket to an app, Theta, made by the park for linketusers. Drew goes on his device to the Linket Registry and connects [MageBoy] to Theta. It can have similar overall functionality as the viewerapp, discussed below. (Or be the same app.) The point is that Drewlikely has already publicised [Mage Boy] on the web or social media,prior to arriving at the park. Hence a fan of Drew can click [Mage Boy]on a webpage on her phone, and load the park viewer app. Drew brings hisfans with him, remotely, into the park. This benefits the park.

The park can have a different linket directed at viewers outside thepark, like [Park Viewer]. This can be on a webpage for the park. Lauravisits the webpage. She might be in a different country. By picking thelinket, the app runs on her device. The app can show different themesfor the park, if it has different areas for different themes. See FIG.3. It shows viewer app 31. The park has 3 areas. Each is clickable. Foreach area, the app shows the current number of visitors.

The linkets for viewers could differ by language. A linket for a viewerin Brazil might be in Portuguese, while another for Mexico can be inSpanish. Both linkets might map to the same app. Where an instance ofthe app that was linked to by the Brazilian linket will depict text inPortuguese.

Laura picks one that shows the themed area where Drew is in. (She doesnot know him.) Suppose this is the medieval village.

A variant is where the park has 3 linkets—[Park—Medieval], [Park—SpaceStation] and [Park—Jungle]. Each maps to the same viewer app. But goesdirectly to the themed area chosen. So the step of Laura seeing FIG. 3can be omitted. A similar set of linkets can be used for Drew, so hedoes not have to pick the themed area.

In general the viewer app and visitor app are different. But a parkcould merge both into one app. One consideration is that the visitor appis for a mobile device. The viewer app can have several versions—formobile and fixed devices. Because the viewer can be walking around witha mobile device, or sitting down at a PC, for example.

Laura can remotely see and perhaps hear Drew and others as they progressthru the village. The park can offer different views to Laura. One mightbe a map view, instead of images. The visitors are shown as variousicons. The app can show the various devices in the area. If the area hasa game approach, where the visitors compete to complete tasks, Drew'sand Laura's apps can show the competitors' progress, if this ismeaningful.

The viewer app could let Laura search the visitor data for somecriteria. One is to show any visitors who have their own linkets. Theseusers might be media influencers and could be interesting for Laura tofollow them thru the park.

It is a short distance to let Drew's visitor app control some of theelectromechanical devices. This increases interactivity by him. He isnot just passively walking or riding thru a themed area. For example,the area could have a room with a locked door. Drew uses his app toanswer some questions based on what he saw (or did) earlier. If correct,the door unlocks.

The park can monetise the viewer app by showing ads. These can includeoffers to buy a ticket to the park. Or to other parks owned by the samefirm. With a possible discount as an inducement. If the park hasassociated items for sale, like toys or movies, these can also be shownon the viewer app.

To encourage use of the viewer app, there could be a message board.Current viewers can write messages viewable by all or some viewers. Thisinteractivity improves stickiness of the app.

The viewer app and the visitor app might have the same server.

3] Viewers Affecting the Park;

The previous section combined esports with a park. Where, perhaps via apossible use of linkets, a viewer can watch visitors interact with thepark. Like most if not all esports, the viewer (or fan) cannot alter theenvironment in which the visitor (or player) is in. Esports often lets afan message the player. Or donate money. Players like this because of itbuilds their audience and they make money.

There is a potential problem if viewers can contact visitors thru theirapps. If Laura has been in the park, or if she has watched others, shemight act as a spoiler. Giving hints (helpful or misleading) to Drew.

This section goes beyond esports. The park can let some of its devicesbe controlled by the viewer app. The park can charge a premium to letLaura access controls in her app to do this.

Consider FIG. 4. Laura can use her viewer app 31 to show a message onscreen 26, addressed to the visitor with persona Smith. Her app offers 4choices. She can only pick one.

Caution. The viewer app should not typically let the viewer writearbitrary text to be shown on a screen in the park, or in a visitor'smobile app. There is likelihood of a mischievous viewer writingprofanity. FIG. 4 restricts tightly what Laura can do.

Or the message picked by Laura could be broadcast on a loudspeaker nearDrew. The voice from the loudspeaker might not be Laura's, butpre-recorded audio made by a park employee. Or made from a computer byText To Speech (TTS).

One extension is if the server knows the location of the visitor playingthe Smith persona. It could show the message on the closest screen orplay it on the closest loudspeaker.

Another example is where Laura's app lets her open a door to a roomcontaining a clue or reward. Her app could also let her send a (probablypre-designated) message to one or more visitors. The app shows the namesof their personas or the nicknames they took when they started.

Conversely, her app could let her close and lock the door. Presumablythe visitors would have other means to open the door. Or the task mightlet them move on and do other tasks. Laura's locking of the door mightbe a hinderance or an aid to the visitors.

FIG. 5 shows Drew 201 and his mobile device 202 near wall 51. There arecupboards 53 and 55 in the wall. Cupboard 53 has door 52 and is empty.Cupboard 55 has door 54. It also has item 56. Both doors are closed.Drew is looking for item 56. He knows what it is but not where it is. Orhe does not know what it is or where it is, but if he saw it, he mightbe inclined to take it or use it. Thru her app, Laura can see that item56 is in cupboard 55 and the other cupboard is empty. Drew does not havethis information on his app and the doors are opaque.

Suppose that Laura wants to help Drew. (Maybe she's on the same team.)But she cannot message him. There are several things she might be ableto do. Suppose door 54 is locked and she is able to unlock it but notopen it. She does so. And hopes that when Drew goes near door 54, hewill try it and open it and see the item.

If she can open the door via her app, she does so. Increasing thechances that Drew will see the item. Suppose both doors are unlocked.They are currently closed. And she cannot open door 54. But she can opendoor 52. She opens door 52. When Drew is nearby, he can see intocupboard 53 and see that it is empty. By default he can immediately tryto open door 54.

Hopefully.

If cupboard 55 has a light and it is turned off, Laura might turn it on,if she can. She could also do so for cupboard 53, to help Drew easilysee it is empty.

So far, Laura has been trying to help Drew. Cooperative behaviour. Butsuppose she wants to hinder him. Antagonistic behaviour. Maybe she is ona competing team. Suppose door 54 is open. She closes it, to make itharder for him to find the item. If she can lock door 54, she does so.If door 52 is open and she can close it, she does so. If she can lockdoor 52, she might do so. If door 54 is open, and she cannot close it,she might turn off the cupboard light if it exists and is on and she canturn it off.

Consider item 56. Suppose Laura can move it in the cupboard. If she ishelping Drew, she might move it closer to the door, so that it is easilyvisible when the door is open. (The park can restrict the item toprevent her moving it outside the cupboard.) If she is not helping Drew,she can if possible move the item deeper into the cupboard and off tothe side. So if the door is open, there is a narrower FoV showing theitem from the outside.

One variant is where Laura reduces the visible cross section of the itemby moving and rotating it as in FIG. 5a . The item is imagined to beroughly ellipsoidal. FIG. 5a is where Laura has rotated it to a narrowerprofile when viewed from outside.

Another variant is where the item has one side that is mostly onecolour, eg. Grey or black, that will blend with the surroundings in thecupboard. Laura could, if able, move or rotate the item so that thisside faces the outside of the cupboard.

Item 56 can be physical or virtual. If virtual, it is possible for thesoftware that positions the item in the cupboard to let Laura move it.So it will be harder for Drew, using his mobile device, to see the itemin the FoV on his screen. If the item is real, it has some wheels orother mobile mechanism that Laura can access and control.

The doors themselves might be hard to find. They could be flush with thewall and blending with it, with no protruding elements like a handle. Inthis case, the most crucial aid Laura could give is to open the door 54.While a hinderance might be to close the door.

Essentially, a viewer helping a visitor will make an item moreaccessible and visible. A viewer hindering a visitor will make it lessaccessible and visible.

FIG. 5 is for 1 desirable item in 1 receptacle, the other receptaclesempty. There might be items in each cupboard. But only 1 item is usefulto Drew. And Laura's app tells her where that item is.

FIG. 5 can be applied to other geometries. Instead of cupboards, thereis a metal filing cabinet with drawers. Each drawer has a separate lock,remotely controlled. One drawer has an item, physical or virtual. Otherdrawers might be empty.

By letting Laura directly altering a device onsite, this closes afeedback loop largely absent in esports. It offers more engagement forthe viewer.

This feedback feature also borrows from the idea of an obstacle coursewhich can be viewed and controlled remotely. The popular Hunger Gamesbooks and movies were a fictional depiction of this scenario. The tropeoffers a suggestion that the park redesign some of its themes to enablecompetition. Currently in parks, there is relatively little competition.Perhaps so anyone could visit and experience all the themes. But thepark might find it productive to have a theme area be used for 2audiences. One general. The other being experienced players, who perhapshave to complete a course in minimum time. Or some other equivalent andchallenging requirement. This can increase audience interest andinvolvement.

So far, we described one viewer. Suppose there are several viewers. Andseveral want to alter a given device. Consider FIG. 4 where each of themessages to Smith has a different number of viewers picking it. A votecan be done. The most popular message gets sent to Smith.

A variant is where there are several devices near the visitor, andchanges to each can affect him. The votes can be to pick one action byone device. Or in some circumstances, the park could let several deviceschange state at the same time. The most popular commands for thosedevices can be found, and the devices do the commands. So a door nearhim can open, and a fountain near him can lower its waterspout.

A variant is where the park wants to see more choices shown to thevisitors, and not just the same most popular choices each time. So if“Drop the bag” is the most popular, it is sent to persona Smith. Butthere can be a lock out period of, say, 1 hour, where this messagecannot be sent again to Smith. (Presumably the person being the latterSmith differs from the person who was the earlier Smith.)

Another means of encouraging repeated interactions by a viewer is to lether have a nickname. If she has a linket, the viewer app might ask forthat, and use it as her nickname. Or she might pick a differentnickname. Laura might pick “Girl Angel”. Then if she is the only one topick a message to be sent to Smith, the message could indicate thesender was “Girl Angel”. Or if she and several others picked a messagefor Smith, all the senders (perhaps up to some cutoff like 50) could beshown to Smith.

The server could record each time that Laura caused a device to interactwith the visitors. This can include each time that she voted with othersfor an implemented interaction. Similar to how some message boards listthe number of posts by a user. Users with a large number could garnerextra privileges. In the context of the park, Laura might get a largerdiscount on items like a park ticket. The total number of times for hercould be more than just a simple talley of successful interactions shewas associated with. For example, if she made the only vote in FIG. 4,then this could be counted as a multiple in her total. The reasoning canbe that she activated an unusual event, giving rise to more variabilityfor visitors.

Giving more recognition to active viewers encourages liquidity in this“marketplace”. And because viewers do not travel to the park, it iseasier for them to repeatedly interact. Whereas visitors have a greaterphysical effort to go to the park.

The use of real devices that can be manipulated by nearby visitors andremote viewers also permits instantiating a popular trope from fiction.A ghost goes into an object and makes it alive. In the context of apark, the ghost is a virtual entity seen thru the devices used by thevisitor and viewer. Akin to the monsters in Pokemon Go. The visitorchases the ghost. It can be shown as going into a nearby physicalobject, like an electric cart, which now turns on and starts moving. Orinto a fountain, that turns on its water jets and turns on lights thatplay a visual pattern onto the jets. Or into a haunted Halloween room,where now mechanical spiders crawl along the walls and descend from theceilings. See Section 8 for more discussion.

While outside the object, the ghost could be manipulated or affected byactions done by the visitor or viewer.

Seen through this lens, the actions in FIGS. 5 and 5 a can bere-narrated. The actions of Laura when she helps Drew can be depicted ontheir device screens as her guiding a friendly ghost to the cupboards.Where the ghost performs what physical actions it can to help Drew getthe item. Instead of Laura manually doing steps on her device to pickthe cupboard holding the desired item, unlock the door, open thecupboard door, turn on the cupboard light, move the item to be morevisible, these could be done as lower level subroutine calls by aprogram shown as a ghost on Drew's device.

These can be reinforced by visual and audio cues. For example, if thedoor is unlocked, there could be LED lights around the door handle thatlight up, and a speaker could play a loud clicking sound. If the door isopened by the ghost, the speaker could play creaking, squeaking sounds.

There is a qualitative difference between this park interaction andesports. It is rare or non-existent for viewers to alter an esportsgame. In part because popular games are twitch games. This refers toreflex games, like First Person Shooter (FPS) games. There is littletime for viewers to act, which may be why this has been rarelyimplemented for esports. For a park, visitors typically interact withsurroundings at a much slower pace. The exception are fast paced rollercoaster type interactions. But those are often linear, in that thevisitor passively goes thru the interaction, and the interaction islargely the same for all who start it.

Another benefit to the park for involving external viewers is that thisopens up a new business. The park spends much to design and make thethemes. By having viewers, the park gets a second customer base atrelatively low marginal cost. It does not have to buy more land. A keyconsideration because the park is likely in a major metropolitan area,chosen because of the large population that can visit it.

Because viewers can be anywhere, this includes them being in smallertowns, and in developing countries. Many people in the latter cannotafford to visit something like a Disneyland Paris. The park can increasemindshare and brand awareness to hundreds of millions of new potentialcustomers by offering a vicarious experience. If a theme at the park istaken from a movie, or there are associated toy products for the movie,these are far more affordable for viewers in developing countries. Thusremote viewing actions can also act as mindshare advertising for thesecheaper products.

If there are many viewers and the visitors in a theme area are competingwith each other, another possibility arises. Viewers can back a visitor.Teams can arise. A visitor's viewers can help it. Perhaps in part byhindering other visitors.

One issue is how teams form. A team might have operated in an earliercontest and decided to reform for the current contest. Here, in general,the visitor they back is different from the earlier visitor. The viewerapp enabling team members to communicate can be crucial in a teamforming and acting together.

A team could furnish the visitor it backs. The team is formed prior tothe contest, and likewise it knows a person willing to play. He shows upwith backing support. Not all viewers would be required to back avisitor. Many viewers might just play a passive role and watch. Theexistence of viewer teams gives added depth to the contest.

As inducement for teams to form and function, the park could let awinning team get a prize. The park designs the contest so thatintermediate results (who is currently leading, etc) can be found andposted on the apps.

An extension is where a team has several visitors.

An extension is where the app or apps that the viewers and visitors usecan have extra messaging options available to a team. At the simplestlevel, the app can let all members of a team message each other. Earlierwe described how messaging with arbitrary text content between a viewerand a visitor might be restricted. But when they are on the same team,that is or can be a crucial need for the team.

One special case is where the team is one remote viewer and severalvisitors. The viewer might be the team leader who coordinates theactivities of the visitors.

Thus far, we discussed how viewers can affect the visitor experience. Ifthey are on the same team, the viewer helps the visitor get clues orrewards. The park can also let a visitor benefit viewers following him.Drew can be near a physical box. He opens it manually. The park candetect this action and attribute it to Drew. Maybe by him doing arelated action on his mobile device—pressing a button to this effect inhis app. Or by correlating his location as given by his device with anyimages of him from the park's cameras. The action releases rewards tohis followers. If some are on his team, the park could let him restrictthe rewards to the team. And perhaps to specific members of the team.The rewards might be abilities that can be used by the viewers tocontrol remotely the park devices. Or perhaps discounts on merchandisesold by the park.

4] Other Venues and Activities;

Escape rooms have become popular lately. An escape room is a room, or aset of adjacent rooms, in which visitors are confined. They have todeduce how to leave, based on clues in the room. One problem afflictingthis genre is scaling. The revenue is limited by how many people takepart. By implementing some of the methods of the earlier sections, theroom can have a remote viewer audience. Viewers can interact withvisitors through electronic screens in the room, and via apps used bythe viewers and perhaps by the visitors.

Electromechanical devices can also be used. Though compared to themeparks, escape rooms have a limited budget. It is likely that purelyelectronic devices, like screens and cameras would be feasible for manyrooms, compared to electromechanical devices.

Scavenger hunts have been played for decades. Recently thru the use ofmobile devices, the games Ingress™ and Pokemon Go™ have been globallypopular. Both are examples of Augmented Reality (AR) games. For PokemonGo, the player goes to various locations in a city. At some aremonsters, which the player can capture via her phone. But the monstersonly exist in the game server and in mobile apps. The real worldbackground is unaffected. Such games are currently quite limited.

Future AR games can be designed, perhaps to be played in part orentirely at a park. The park modifies its devices along the linesdescribed earlier. It can cater to players of an AR game by offering anenhanced experience, compared to playing outside the park. Now, when aplayer does something in the game, changes happen both in the AR overlayand in the physical background. This might be called Mixed Reality (MR).A far richer interaction. Plus having remote viewers being able to alterthe physical background increases the variability and uniqueness of thegame play.

Our meaning of MR in this application also takes it further infunctionality than what some MR proponents are defining as MR. CurrentMR devices include the HoloLens™ by Microsoft Corp. and a device byMagic Leap Corp. Both let a virtual entity respond to its physicalenvironment. Like a virtual monster that moves behind a real desk nearthe player of a game, to hide from a player. The player is wearing an MRdevice that shows the monster and the real environment. The depiction ofthe monster is modified depending on its 3 dimensional surface beingtreated as partly or entirely occluded (blocked) by real objects.

In this application, one example is where a viewer can see via her appall the monsters in the theme area, but the visitor cannot. The game canlet a viewer guide a monster to evade capture from a visitor. The gamedeliberately outsources some of a monster's actions to be controlled byviewers. If several viewers want to control a monster, then as above,the different actions that the monster can take are voted on by theviewers.

In related ways, a viewer (or viewers) can alter the physicalneighbourhood of a monster, to conceal it from a visitor. The viewermight have a (real) box moved, so as to conceal a monster behind the boxfrom direct line of sight of a visitor moving in a given trajectory. Anelaboration is where the viewer moves the box, and then moves themonster to be hidden behind the box. This is a crucial value add thatthe park offers the game and its garners.

Outside the park, in general it can be expected that if a game hasremote viewers, they cannot cause gross changes in devices near theplayers, who are not in the park.

Another example involves a viewer distracting a visitor. The viewermight activate a loud sound and vary the lighting in an area, to make itharder for the visitor to search for a monster. Or the viewer can causea pleasant aroma (like from cooking) to come from an area. To induce thevisitor to go there, and away from other places holding monsters.

Another activity is cosplay. Costumed play. Typically fans dress up incostumes inspired by manga, anime or science fiction movies. A parkcould have an anime inspired theme area. Visitors in costume might beeligible for a cosplay specific app. And various tasks or clues in thearea are chosen to have deep contextual appeal to them. Plus, viewerscan access a cosplay specific app.

For the scenarios in this section, remote viewers using an app have onepossible advantage over visitors. The visitors are in an augmentedreality scene. They cannot avoid seeing the physical reality aroundthem. Though this can be mitigated by having the surroundings be dressedup according to the imaginary plot. But viewers are looking at itentirely via an app. The app can overlay and edit out any non-conformingimages. For the viewers, it can be virtual reality, not augmented. VR,when done well, is generally acknowledged as being more compelling thanAR. Taking this further, the visitor might wear a Heads Up Display (HUD)that enables MR.

5] Followers;

Viewers can follow a visitor. The viewer app has a list of visitorswilling to let viewers follow them. The park can let the visitors opt inor opt out of this, perhaps thru the use of a visitor app. The viewerapp could have in that list of visitors, a number next to a visitor,indicating the number of viewers who are following him.

Just like a visitor can have a nickname or handle, so too can a viewer.The viewer's handle can be the same across different remote visits tothe park.

Visitors and followers can rate each other. If a visitor has severalfollowers, and those can interact remotely with each other, the park canlet a follower rate other followers, who are following the same visitor.The latter condition is to try to have the ratings be meaningful.Whereas if Sue and Jill are viewers and follow different visitors, arating that Sue gives for Jill might be meaningless.

A visitor can see the nicknames of those following him. If a followerdoes not have a nickname, this can be shown as blank on the visitor'sapp. Or if a follower does have a nickname, the follower might have anoption of being anonymous.

The visitor can have a nickname or be anonymous. If the latter, the parkmight assign the visitor eg. anon15, to distinguish him from anotheranonymous visitor anon31.

If a visitor has followers, he might be able to delete some followers.Perhaps he had negative experiences with them in earlier visits. Or afollower can have a reputation based on feedback from other earliervisitors she followed. Suppose the feedback is given as a number from 0to 5, where 5 is the highest rating and 0 the lowest. The visitor appcould have a threshold set by the visitor, like 3. This means thatviewers who want to follow him need a rating of at least 3.

Suppose in FIG. 2 that viewer Laura is following visitor Drew. How canthis be done? The park can use its cameras and drones and imagerecognition to track Drew. It is now in 2018 well known that China andUK have extensive security cameras and software powerful enough toidentify individuals in crowds, with high confidence. Similar abilitiesfor parks are possible. A park could also use other means, especiallyindoors, to track visitors. A beacon based method, for example. Severalbeacons are stationed in the park. The visitor's mobile device interactswith the beacons. Or the visitor might be given a physical tag to wearupon entry to the park. The visitor's location can be detected via thetag interacting with transponders emplaced in the park.

The viewer app can show a map with the locations of the person theviewer is following.

The viewer app can also show images of the visitor taken from the park'scameras. The image could be a skin overlaying the face or other parts ofthe visitor. The visitor could tell the park, perhaps via a visitor app,what the viewer sees of the visitor.

In general, the park could make several of its cameras available toviewers. To see the edited video, and perhaps to give temporary controlof the camera to a viewer. It can be expected that there will be severalviewers who want to control a given camera. How can a viewer be picked?

First. One way is random selection amongst viewers.

Second. A viewer pays with currency or with a special currency used bythe park. Or with a virtual good that the user has.

Third. Priority can be given to viewers following visitors near thecamera. (What near means can be set by the park.) This can be due to avisitor and his followers looking for clues (scavenger hunt perhaps),where they want to scrutinise closely a given area. This can thin downthe eligible viewers.

Fourth. A viewer who wants to use a camera can be asked via her app tospecify what direction (azimuth and elevation). Across all viewers whowant to use the camera, a polling can be done to find a direction thatwill approximately satisfy as many as possible.

When the camera takes a photo or video, this might only go to the pickedviewers. Or it could go to all viewers who wanted the camera.

The viewer app can have an option to ask the visitor app to take a photoor short video of the visitor (with the latter's agreeement) and thensend it to the viewer. Possibly, the images can be altered via thepark's servers to show the visitor in his chosen skin or persona.Likewise, the visitor app can have an option to ask the viewer app totake a photo or short video of the viewer and send it to the visitor.These actions might be linked. A photo or video of the visitor isallowed by the visitor only if he can also get similar from the viewer.

The viewer app can have an option to ask the visitor app to take a photo(or short video) with a camera on the visitor device that is on theopposite side of the screen. This is often the most natural way for auser to take a photo of his surroundings. If a short video, the visitorapp might have a default suggestion of a pan of what the visitor isseeing. This helps the viewer get an idea of the surroundings of thevisitor.

The viewer app can have an option to ask the visitor app to take a zoomin or zoom out photo in a given direction.

Some steps can be automated. FIG. 6 shows a map of park 200 withbuildings 61 and 62. And 3 fountains 63, 64, 65. (Not to scale.) X markswhere Drew 201 is standing. FIG. 6 is shown in Laura's app. She wantsDrew to take a photo of fountain 63. But Drew sees 3 fountains. How canshe simply and unambiguously tell Drew which fountain? In general, inhis phone, he will not be looking at the map. In her app she picksfountain 63. There is an option to convey this to Drew's app withinstructions to take a photo of 63. Drew's device knows its location viaGPS. And the park knows Drew's device location (his app tells the park).The park knows the location of fountain 63. Hence the park can make thevector from his location to 63. That information is sent to his app.Along with instructions to take the photo in the direction of thevector. If his device has a compass (reasonable for current mobiledevices), it has enough information to start a camera (probably on theopposite side to the screen). The screen might show the image seen bythe camera, as well as information about how to align the camera. Whenaligned correctly, the screen shows the desired fountain 63. This helpsDrew take the right photo.

The lines in FIG. 6 emanating from Drew's location indicate the guidancegiven to his phone to orient its camera. The lines are the recommendedFoV.

These type of interactions can be useful to encourage a community toarise via cooperative behaviour.

The apps can let the users talk—live audio—but not show images of theusers.

The viewer app might or might not be able to follow several visitorssimultaneously. One reason might be to reduce the chance of cheating, ifthere is a game scenario where the viewer gets information from onevisitor and relays it to another.

The viewer app could let the viewer exchange messages with a visitorbeing followed on the app. The visitor could have an option to only letcertain visitors that he picked, be able to message him.

When Laura follows Drew, she has a viewer app and he has a visitor app.(These could be the same.) The apps can talk to a common app server, andthus the apps can interact with each other. Equivalently the viewer apphas a viewer server, and the visitor app uses a visitor server. And theviewer and visitor servers communicate with each other.

Laura and Drew could trade virtual goods. This gives incentive for eachto keep visiting (in real life or remotely) the park. Trading includesgifting. Suppose Drew is in a fantasy theme, with magic potions and goldand swords being used, but he does not have a magic potion. He needs oneto continue. Laura might have the potion. Maybe during a earlierphysical visit to the park, she found it in a scavenger hunt. Or duringher current following of Drew, she can buy one from the park via herapp.

This also shows a useful feature that the park could implement. Avisitor could find or acquire in some way virtual goods during a visit.He can retain these after he leaves. This is easily done via the parkserver having a record of the real identity of Drew, which could be theprimary key in a database. Other fields for this key could be the ids ofchain mail, leather mail and a magic helmet.

Some virtual goods might be more akin to services or abilities. One goodmight open or close a physical door in the park. Or to lock or unlockthat door, while still keeping it closed. Going further, suppose thepark has several such doors, Alpha, Beta, Delta. One good is to open orclose Alpha. It does not work on other real doors. Another good locks orunlocks Beta.

Or suppose the park has several doors. Some are red. Some are green. Agood could be a “key”. A red key will open any red door, and likewisefor a green key.

An extension is that a good, like a key, might only be able to be usedfor a maximum number of times remaining. So a given red key might onlyhave 4 more uses, while a given green key has 10 more uses.

An extension is that a good, like a key can have, in addition to themaximum number of times left, a maximum number of times it can be usedin a day. So the green key that has 10 more uses can have a daily limitof 3 uses.

A good could have an expiration date. To encourage use of the good. Avariant is if the good has a maximum number of uses. This maximum coulddecrease over time.

The park could restrict the use of virtual services to only userscurrently in the park (=visitors). This incents a visitor to return. Orto remotely give or sell it to another person who might currently be inthe park.

One extension is suppose Laura has a (virtual) magic helmet that she gotin an earlier visit. The park lets her sell it to Drew, who is in thepark right now. Can she sell or give it to Ralph, who is not currentlyin the park? This is up to the park. If the park allows it, this cangive rise to a liquid secondary market. Which can be considered positiveby the park. Or the park could forbid it, to induce Laura to revisit orto view the park.

A key point is that this differs from traditional video games, where allthe items alter other items purely in a virtual world. In thisapplication, the park can put some of its electromechanical devicesunder the control of virtual services. And those can be controlledlocally or remotely.

Return to viewer Laura following visitor Drew. They could trade. Perhapsin Drew's current visit to the park, he picked up a parchment of healingand a crystal ball. Both are virtual goods. He needs a magic potion. Hesees in his app that Laura has the potion. He contacts her via his appand offers his parchment for her potion.

Returning to when a viewer wants to follow a visitor, the viewer couldshow a list of virtual goods she has, or a subset of that list. Thevisitor can decide whether to let her become a follower based in part onseeing that list. Various steps can be done to ease this process. Theviewer's virtual goods are all in the park's database, associated withan id of the viewer. Thus her app could have a button “list all”. Whenshe ticks this, all her goods are listed to the visitor's app. While ifshe only wants to offer some, her app lets her explicitly pick those.

Likewise suppose Drew is at a point in his journey thru the park that heneeds a magic cloak. Given this, his app can easily search the inventoryof his followers. Any with a magic cloak are shown in a list of usefulfollowers. This reduces the cognitive and manual burden on Drew.

More generally, suppose Drew is at a point in his journey thru the parkwhere he faces an obstacle. Perhaps a fountain that needs to be turnedoff so he can proceed by it. The park lets him broadcast to all viewers,asking who has a key to the fountain? He might offer something in returnfrom the virtual goods he picked up today and in earlier physical visitsto the park. The virtual goods could also include those he got as aremote viewer, by trading with visitors. Or by buying directly from thepark.

One possible use of followers by a visitor is to carry virtual goods. Atheme area that Drew is going thru might limit him as to the maximumnumber of goods he is carrying. If he goes to a location and sees adesirable virtual good, the park can find out what he is alreadycarrying and forbid this. But it could let him ‘give’ some goods he iscarrying to a (trusted) follower. He then picks up the new good. Later,he can ask the follower for his good back. It is up to the park whetherto let the follower renege and keep the good.

Virtual goods might be combined with real goods. Imagine a teddy bear ina box. The bear is a prize. If Drew completes several tasks or findsseveral virtual goods, these might be used in opening the box. Whereuponhe wins the bear.

The reader may see similarities between the followers of this sectionand the team of an earlier section. To some extent, and for some uses,the distinction between follower and team is arbitrary.

A visitor could take an action with a real device that makes, alters ordeletes virtual items. See FIG. 7. It shows Drew and his mobile devicenear bird cage 71. The latter is a real object. Drew manually opens door72. Several virtual birds are made and are depicted in his app or aviewer's app as flying out of the cage. Other visitors nearby might tryto capture them using apps on their mobile devices. The park connectsthe opening of the cage with Drew. Perhaps from cameras it has thatfocus on the bird cage, and correlated with his known position from thelocation of his mobile device.

Remote viewers may be able to see these virtual birds on their apps andbe able to capture them. The park can enable such cases.

Conversely, with the same bird cage or a different one, if Drew goes toit and opens the door, one or more virtual birds nearby might fly intoit. Depending on circumstances, Drew might be considered now to havecaptured them, and added them to his inventory of virtual items.

There might be a bird cage Phi housing a virtual hawk. If the birdsreleased from cage 71 are, say, pigeons, then when Phi is opened, thefreed hawk could kill some virtual pigeons.

6] Skill Levels;

For some themes, the park might let viewers possess abilities thatcannot be traded with a visitor. This encourages viewers to keepwatching the visitor and engaged with the app. The park can make revenueby showing ads to the viewer. With board games and computer games, oneway to keep players engaged is to let them (try to) gain experience.Either in a given instance of a game or across plays of a game.

The park lets a viewer have an ability to control (either by herself orwith others) an electromechanical device. For example. A viewer on skilllevel 1 (the lowest) can open and close certain physical doors in thepark. With the caveat that a door can be opened only if it is unlocked.A viewer on skill level 2 can also unlock or lock those doors. A vieweron skill level 3 can also have a physical teddy bear wave its arms andpoint them in various directions. A viewer on skill level 4 can alsosummon an electric cart to a location in the park.

The abilities might be used when the person is a visitor.

How can a viewer or visitor get an ability? The park could sell it.Especially for viewers, this gives the park a new market.

7] Viewer Games;

The park might let viewers play in a game on the viewer app, in a 3dimensional environment that is a simulation of the park. This has ascaling advantage that the park does not have with real visitors. Thereare safety limits on the maximum number of visitors the park can have.One of the bottlenecks to increasing revenue that a dependence of livevisitors has. By contrast, a game simulation faces far less. Moreservers and more input and output bandwidth might be needed. The serversand hardware associated with the extra bandwidth take up far less room.And these might be at a data center located in regions with cheap realestate. Whereas the park is likely in an expensive region.

FIG. 8 shows a screen that can appear in the viewer's app when she runsit. The first choice is for the viewer to play alone. She plays as thesole player in a park simulation, taking a path or trajectory throughthe simulation. Another option is for her to play in a multiplayer gamewith other viewers.

A third option is to follow visitors. A fourth option is to join avisitor's team. These 2 options were discussed earlier.

The game played only by the viewers can differ from the game or task (egscavenger hunt) being done by the visitors. The latter can be slowcompared to FPS games. So the park could design a faster paced game tobe played only by viewers. While the game or task done by visitors(perhaps involving viewers) can be designed separately. See FIG. 9. Item91 is the pure viewer game. Item 92 is the game/task of the visitors,where this includes the possibility that 92 also involves viewers asfollowers or team members.

The games 91 and 92 interact via trade. FIG. 9 describes a looselycoupled system. Each game can be designed and maintained separately bykeeping the interface simple.

The trade can incent viewers to play. They find, make, capture or earnvirtual items (including virtual money), that can be traded withvisitors. However the park could also design the viewer game to beplayable as a standalone game.

Game 91 might not involve controlling or altering any real devices inthe park. A pure computer game. Though it could have the layout of thepark or a subset of the park.

One consequence of the loosely coupled nature of FIG. 9 is that therecould be several games offered to the viewers.

A viewer game need not use a literal simulation of the park. Imagine asin FIG. 3 where the park has several themed areas—medieval village,space travel and haunted house. The viewer only game might be just amedieval village. Portions of the visuals in the game could be close tothe actual medieval themed areas of the park. So the park can promotesections of itself to outsiders and build mindshare.

FIG. 9 is a deliberate design decoupling. There can also be a temporaldecoupling. The park is unlikely to be open 24 hours 7 days a week.During the time that it is closed, viewers might still play their games.Because there is less direct real time interactions between viewers andvisitors. This can be amplified if viewers amass enough virtual items tosell to visitors. During park closure, viewers, especially in other timezones, can earn a living in their game by collecting items. Their“shift” ends when the park opens for visitors and the viewers put theiritems for sale.

For a park, a second use of the viewer-only games is to run simulationsof possible future configurations of the park. These simulations canlook at what percentage of players successfully complete a game or task.And how long they take. At least for games where the “time” durations inthe game correspond to real time durations. For an actual park layout,it can be an issue if a game is too hard for many visitors.

If there are enough viewers, the park could offer several configurationsfor playing by different viewers. Feedback in terms of remarks byviewers can also be solicited.

This can be taken a step further. See FIG. 2. The park makes aviewer-only game with 2 roles. A viewer remote from the park. Anotherviewer, who is remote but plays a role of an onsite visitor. This gamecould be represented by 2 apps or 1 app that runs in either role. Thereare 2 simulations going on. While the second role cannot fully reprise alive visitor in a real immersive environment, it could still furnishuseful data for the park in deciding future experiences.

8] Reification;

Viewers and visitors have been described as interacting in 2 broadmodes. One is where the both are in the same game, where the viewersmight be followers of a visitor or on the same team as the visitor.Another, described in the last section, was the viewers and visitorsplaying separate games, with the interaction being the passing ofvirtual items between them.

Consider when both are in the same game. One gameplay feature isreification. By this we mean where a virtual item becomes (reifies into)a real corresponding item. Imagine a game of chasing puppies. Thepuppies exist as virtual items on the screens of the viewers and perhapstoo on the screen of the visitor. They scamper and gamers have to catchthem. Suppose viewer Laura catches one. The game might restrict her togiving (or trading it) with Drew, who is in the actual park. He walks toa physical object resembling a dog kennel. He uses his mobile device to“put” the virtual puppy into the kennel. Whereupon the kennel door opensand a physical toy puppy is ejected. Drew can give it to a child, say.

As Drew uses his visitor app to put the virtual puppy onto (say) thekennel's image in his device, the physical kennel can have physicalbells and whistles that move and make sound, and lights that light up.The reader is familiar with using a computer, where as she drags an iconto drop it on a second icon, the latter might change colour to indicatethat it can now accept the first icon. In a similar way, having physicalobjects do tangible actions adds to the reification ambiance.

See FIG. 10. Highlighted steps 101 and 102 are the key reificationsteps.

A variant is where the physical toy puppy is an electromechanical puppy.Drew via his mobile device can now command this puppy.

The action of Drew putting his virtual puppy into the kennel causes itto be removed from the game and replaced by a physical toy puppy. ThisMR mode can enhance the overall game.

The kennel could have a 3d printer or some other type of maker machine.It might make an object resembling a puppy, and eject it to Drew, whocan keep it.

Extensions are possible. One variant is for the visitor Drew to askviewers to catch a virtual puppy. The first viewer, Laura, to do sosends it to Drew. In the game Laura played, it might give her a prize.In addition, or instead, Drew could compensate her in some way. Drewreifies it. In doing so, he might get a prize from his app. He couldremit some or all of it to her.

The prize could be fungible, like 20 “gold” coins. So he remits 10 coinsto Laura.

A variant is where when Drew gets the virtual puppy from Laura, it triesto run away from him. So he has to do some task to (re)capture it. Thetask could be done entirely on his device. Or he might have to do somephysical activity, like walking after the puppy.

A variant is where when Laura captures a virtual object and sends it toDrew, she automatically gets compensation from her game if Drew reifiesit. She does not have to depend on his generosity. We say “her game”because the game could be one played jointly with Drew. Or she and Dreware playing different games.

A variant is where For Laura the task is to (try to) send the captureditem to visitor Drew, who can reify. The “try to” is the variant. Theremight be several viewers tasked with capturing a puppy. The first to doso offers it to Drew. Gives incentive for each viewer to work quickly.It speeds up their gameplay experience and Drew's.

A variant is the language that an object (real or virtual) “talks” in.This “talks” here means both audio or (electronic) text coming from theobject. Where “coming” can mean what is shown in an app used by visitoror viewer.

Suppose Laura is in Bangkok and she speaks Thai. She is chasing avirtual talking puppy.

Her app knows or guesses what language she speaks. Perhaps when sheinstalled it, she was asked to pick a preferred language. Or she isusing a mobile device with GPS, and the app finds the location of thedevice. It maps that to the main language of Bangkok. In the chase ofthe puppy, it speaks Thai. She captures the puppy and sends it to Drewin Shanghai. He interacts with his app in Chinese. Now he chases thepuppy with his app. The game can have the puppy speak in the mainlanguage of the region of the park, Chinese. (Drew also has the optionto change this to another language.) Also, if Drew manages to reify thevirtual puppy into a real toy puppy, the latter speaks Chinese.

One extension is where the puppy might “talk” in 2 languages. Like forLaura in Bangkok, it talks in Thai and Malay. While Drew's puppy onlytalks in Chinese.

Anti-reification can happen. Imagine Drew controlling a physical robotpuppy. He does various commands and it responds. The task he is inrequires him to convert this to a virtual puppy. He walks it to aphysical object appearing to be a dog kennel. He commands it in. Thepuppy is taken out of the game. (Or at least until another player needsit.) A virtual puppy appears on Drew's screen. The game might need himto take this puppy to the next task. Or he might be able to trade itwith a viewer; getting something virtual in return that he can use inthe game.

See FIG. 11. The highlighted steps 111 and 112 are the keyanti-reification steps.

9] Moving Viewer;

So far, the remote viewer Laura has not moved, or there has been norequirement for her to do so, while doing a game or activity on herdevice with Drew. He has been moving thru the park. There have been 2overall scenarios. In one, she and Drew are in the same game, and shemight be a follower of him or in the same team. In the other, she (andperhaps other viewers) are playing their own game, with just a minimalinteraction with Drew in his activity.

This section describes how she moves in her physical environment. Herdevice is now a mobile device, just as Drew has a mobile device. Her appcoordinates her travels to be thematic as possible with Drew's travails.Suppose Drew is in an area of the park with a jungle theme. Her appsuggests that she go to an area of her town with a local public garden.Her app can find various suitable nearby areas and give directions. Thisis possible given that her device knows its outdoor location, and viasuch third party assets as Google Maps, and navigation software, her app(which means the park's servers) can provide directions. When shereaches or is near one of these locations, her app detects this. Itmight release more monsters near her, making them easier to capture,than if she was not in the suggested garden. The monsters might be ofhigher value, including being rarer.

Conversely, imagine a game where Laura is at a high skill level. To makeher play increasingly difficult, the density of monsters around her canbe sparser than for the average (lesser) player. And the monsters nearher can be more dangerous, making them harder to capture or kill.

If she captures a monster, apart from what points she might get fromthat action alone, she can trade it with Drew, to some mutual benefitdetermined by the game.

If she and Drew are both in similar outdoor environments and themes,this could also benefit Drew. He might find or capture something moreuseful to her, if she is in her current garden surroundings. They couldtrade. For example, suppose he is in a garden with flowers. She can bedirected to flowering plants. Her app might from its database havelocations of such plants in the garden she is in. Or her app can useimage recognition to detect from her device camera when she is nearflowers.

Regarding the database having locations of flowering plants in abotanical garden, this extrapolates the increasing fine grainedinformation in maps. It is well known that Google Corp. has cars thattravel city streets, to keep Google Maps up to date. In related ways,large public gardens could also have information about their interiorsin databases that can be queried. Laura's app can ask her to take aphoto of a flower. Perhaps of a particular type of flower, like a tulipor rose. Her app verifies this and she now has a virtual flower as partof her inventory. To perhaps be used later, or traded with Drew if he isin a context where he can use it.

One example of a joint interaction is where the theme park has Drewneeding an image of a flower. Where this must be taken of a live flowerin a public space. When Laura and Drew are teamed, he sends a message toher, asking her to find a black rose, say, in a public space.Essentially, each can look for items for the other.

Her app and Drew's are front ends to a unified game server. This servercan use the resources in the theme park, which it knows precisely interms of their features and locations, and knowledge about Laura'ssurroundings. The latter is expected to be less precise.

Another example is if Drew is in an indoor museum theme. Laura's appsuggests a nearby library or even an actual museum, with directions toit. Such events let the park and library or venue do a cosponsorship tobenefit both parties.

More generally, one person might be indoors and the other outdoors. Agame can be where both are separately looking for prizes or clues indeliberately disparate contexts.

10] Movie and Park;

Another example supposes the park has a movie studio that released amovie currently playing worldwide in theatres. Laura's app encouragesher to go to a nearby theatre where the movie is playing. Given that herapp knows its location, the app also can access data about whichtheatres in her town are playing the movie, and give directions to one.

If Laura goes to the theatre, her app can offer her a discount on theconcessions (food and drinks) or on a ticket to that movie. The latterhelps the park generate sales of its other subsidiaries. The formerdiscount directly benefits the theatre. There can be arrangements wherethe park gets some of this.

If she is in the room where the movie is playing, there might be cluesor rewards via the movie or in trailers playing before the movie. Forexample, a trailer shows an item and a barcode (eg QR) and some textabout the item. Laura scans it with her game app. (The app has an optionto do this.) The app decodes the barcode in the image to an URL. The appappends an argument to the URL. Then it sends the altered URL to thedevice browser. The browser sends the URL to the park server, whichdisplays a page on her browser. The extra argument in the URL isdetected by the server. Now the park knows that she is playing one ofits apps. Hence she might get a bigger discount on an item than anotherpatron, Tim, in the room with no involvement with the park app. Becauseif Tim decoded the barcode with a generic decoder, nothing is added tothe URL. So the park server knows that Tim is not playing a park appassociated with a remote viewer. Laura gets a different (lower) pricethan Tim.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart of this process. For brevity, it describes abarcode in QR format. Other formats are possible, like Data Matrix. Thegeneralisation of FIG. 12 and the previous paragraph is how to solve theproblem where an audience by necessity has to see the same images on ascreen. One of these images is a barcode to an item. But the desire isto offer this item at different prices, say, to different patrons. Asolution arises if the patrons use different mobile apps. An app canappend a nonce or key or code to a decoded URL. This nonce is used bythe server to classify the user and to send a different webpage (ordifferent information in general) to that user, compared to other userswith different nonces.

FIG. 13 shows Laura 210 and her mobile device 211 in movie theatre 131.She is in the room where the movie is to be shown. She is in front ofand watching the projection screen 132. It is shone upon by digitalprojector 133. That is connected to park server 134. The latter is shownoutside park 200. It could be inside the park. And Drew 201 with hismobile device 202 is in the park and doing some game or activity. Forclarity, FIG. 13 omits explicit depiction of the park visitor apprunning on device 202 and the park viewer app running on device 211.

Granted, when a trailer plays before a movie, it is usually by anunaffiliated firm. But a trailer could be by a firm making a productthat has a tie-in with the movie. So patrons who came to see the moviemight be interested in the product. The above method can enhance this.By targeting a user (Laura) who has shown extra interest because shedownloaded an app made by the movie studio and park.

During the movie, her app can be synchronised to when the movie started.This can be done by her app listening for specific audio at the startand perhaps periodically during the movie. There is prior art on thisbeing done to identify songs.

Or, given that the movie is likely played in fully digital form, thedigital projector could be questioned by the park server, as to when itstarted playing the movie. Equivalently, when the projector started themovie, it contacts the park server and tells it the id of the projectorand when it started playing. The server has a database that maps theprojector id to the location of the theatre that the projector is in.When the server is given Laura's device location, it finds the theatreand how far into the movie (or when the movie will play) it is. This canbe computationally easier than listening for and id-ing audio from themovie.

See FIG. 14.

Once the app syncs to the movie (see item 141), at various times itcould (for example) alert Laura that there is an object (eg a jacket, ahandbag) in the movie whose image she should “capture”. See item 142.She uses her mobile device to do this. See item 143. Image recognitionis done on the image (or video) by the app or its server. If the objectis identified, then she owns a virtual instance of it. A prize in somevirtual currency could be awarded to her.

A variant is that the syncing of the app (item 141) is optional. The appmight show the information about desired items when it boots up, withouthints about when in the movie these will appear.

A variant is where the app asks her a simple question based on what shejust saw in the movie. Or on what is happening or to prepare her forwhat will soon happen. This could be in the format of a multiple choiceset of answers, where she just has to pick one answer. A correct answercan let the app award her a prize of some kind. The prize might be avirtual scroll, for example, or credits in some artificial currency. Ifthe prize is a virtual item, that might be later sent to Drew in thepark.

On the issue of a mobile device being used in the movie room, note thatduring trailers, a theatre might actually encourage use. In sometheatres in the US (and elsewhere), the period of time when trailers areshown includes ads that are not trailers (ie ads not for other movies).These ads might have phone numbers (perhaps 5 digits or less) thatpatrons are encouraged to text or call while they are in the room. Thetheatre gets paid for those ads from third parties. However, when themovie starts, the theatre strongly discourages audible use of mobiledevices. This is understandable and this application stresses that itagrees with the policy. The viewer app used by Laura should inform herby visuals and perhaps by a silent vibration of the device.

When she is sitting in the theatre, and not moving, she is equivalent tothe Laura of the earlier sections, who was not required to move. Andwhose surroundings had no bearing on her interactions with the park appand visitors. But suppose the park has themes medieval village, jungleand space travel. If the movie has some connection of any of these, theninteractions between her and visitors to that theme can reinforce theexperiences of both.

Suppose the theme is medieval village. If the movie shows an actorcarrying an axe, her app gets her to capture the axe. She can use it invirtual form on her app to hack through opponents, if that is what hergame is about. Or she can trade it with Drew for his needs in the park.See item 144.

A variant is where “capture” does not mean take a photo of it. The appmight show a button. Laura clicks this when she sees the axe appear inthe movie. This might be easier than her having to raise her device andtake a photo. Possibly less distracting to others behind her.

A variant is where Drew is in the medieval part of the park. The moviewas written to have tie-ins. At various parts of the medieval park, Drewmight need different items in virtual form, like an axe, a scroll, apitcher. Suppose he currently needs a scroll. And he has a team ofviewers, or viewers who are just following him. He puts out a request(his app and the viewer app specifically let him do this) for a scroll.This request can mention that (eg) “Hey if you're in a theatre showing[Film name], see if you can capture a scroll for me.”

Or when he first went into the medieval park, he is told by the parkthat he will need those above items. He messages the viewers with theentire list. They can start looking in the movie for the items. Theitems 145 and 146 in FIG. 14 implicitly refer to the steps of this andthe previous paragraph.

A variant is where the server/apps automatically send his messages onlyto those viewers already watching that movie. In turn, a variant iswhere suppose when those messages went out, Laura was not in thetheatre. She does not get the messages. But she then goes to the theatre15 minutes later. The server finds out by the methods described above.It sends her those messages.

The server knows the items that Drew is asking for. It also hastimecodes for the movie for when those items are visible. The movie wasdesigned to be compatible with the medieval park. The tasks in the parkgave rise to a complete set of virtual items that can be used. Theseitems (or a subset) were made visible in the movie, and all thetimecodes were determined a priori to the movie being shown publicly.

Given this, the viewer app can give heads up whenever a desired item inDrew's list is above to appear. A variant is where Laura can turn offthis option. Why? If it is off, she has to pay more attention to themovie. The advantage is that if she captures an item, she gets a greatercredit for it in the game.

When Laura captures an item, she might get a credit. If she offers it toDrew and Drew accepts, she could get another amount of credit. (Thisamount could differ from the capture amount.) Why? Drew might only needone instance of the item. If several viewers offer him the item, hemight or can only pick one. This is a gamification to encourage viewersto be quick. But in this case, it may be good game design to ensure thatunsuccessful viewers get some compensation.

A variant is where there are several visitors like Drew wandering thruthe park. So there might be a continual demand for medieval items in themovie. This can alter the dynamics of Laura and other viewers.

A variant is where the Laura is in a different time zone from Drew. Shemight go to the theatre, and capture various items from the movie. Butthere might be little demand from visitors in the park. The park mightbe closed for example. The park might let Laura put her items up for“sale” or “trade”, where these actions can be more precisely defined bythe park.

There can be a queue of items submitted by various viewers throughoutthe world. When the park reopens, and Drew is one of the first visitors,he might check the queue on his device and get the items he needs.

For simplicity, when he gets a scroll, this is the earliest instance ofthe scroll in the queue, and ditto for other items. An alternative is tolet him pick which instance of the scroll to accept. In this case, thequeue might show information about the viewers who submitted each item.Drew could pick only those from a given viewer, for example.

A variant is where Drew has a list of his followers from earlier timesthat he visited the park. Or Drew has a team of followers, and Laura ison that team. His app can have a simplifying option that defaults to himgetting items from his team by default. And if he still needs items, tolet him get from the queue, from viewers not on his team.

A variant is when Laura starts her viewer app, and it is the typicaltime of the day or week in her region for matinee shows. In the US,these are typically Monday to Friday in the afternoons. This can extendto include afternoons on the weekends. For decades, theatres have givensubstantial discounts on tickets to patrons entering at those hours.During matinee sessions, many theatres are mostly empty. The marginalcost of an extra patron is small. Laura's app can encourage her toattend the park's movie in a matinee. With possibly an extra discount tothe matinee price.

A variant is for her app to suggest that she schedule a visit to thetheatre for a matinee, even if she ran the app in the evening.

What if the movie does not fit the themes of the theme park? Earlier wasdescribed how Laura might get a quiz during the movie, based on whatjust happened or is happening in the movie. Prizes could be virtualitems that Drew needs. These items need not have any correlation to themovie.

When Drew gets an item from Laura, he uses it via the mechanisms in hisapp. Suppose it is a virtual key that opens a real locked door to a realroom in the park. He goes in and finds that he needs other items. Hemessages Laura, listing those items. And possibly to others in his teamor following him. Thus far, this is the same as earlier sections. Butnow Laura and some others are in theatres watching the movie made by thepark. In general, they are not in the same theatre. And there is noassumption that the theatres are synced with each other. Some theatresmight have started an hour earlier showing the movie than others.

Now there might be no hints in their viewer app about when upcoming inthe movie will be those items. Or perhaps there are hints. In eithercase, Laura can search for and try to capture the items where theyappear. Any she captures can be submitted to Drew. This is a loop thatcan be repeated. See FIG. 15 and items 151, 152 and 153. Items 143, 144and 145 are from FIG. 14. One caveat is that in different loops, theviewer who successfully captures an item and has it accepted by Drewmight be different. Item 151 was omitted from FIG. 14 for brevity inthat figure.

A variant is that if Laura's item was accepted by Drew, then when hesends out a request of other items, it only goes to Laura.

Note that FIG. 15 does not mention the theatre. It can pertain to ageneral interactive loop between viewers and visitors.

An extension is where the movie is made by a firm independent of thepark. In this case, there can be a relationship between these parties tocoordinate and enable the actions described in this section.

11] Anti-Cheating;

A problem with the previous section can be where people post solutionson social media to the various questions that Laura can get about themovie. The park and theatre might not necessarily regard this as bad.The main consideration could be to ensure that she pays to watch themovie.

One way is for a code to be printed on the paper ticket that she getswhen she pays. The code can be written in text or in a barcode. It hasdata specific to that theatre location and date. She runs the viewer appand takes an image of the ticket. The image or the decoded data can beuploaded to the park server.

Suppose the theatre issued the ticket in the form of an image it showson an electronic screen to her at the time of payment. She takes a photoof the image with her device and proceeds as in the previous paragraph.

Similarly, suppose Laura paid electronically, perhaps with a credit ordebit card. This can happen if she buys online. The theatre could getelectronically an electronic address of hers, like her email address.The theatre sends a receipt to the address. Her device can upload thisto the park server.

When the movie plays, other measures can be done. Consider when a quizcan be shown, where prizes are virtual items to be used by a visitor tothe park. If these prizes are not correlated with items in the movie,then the park makes many quizes and associated with different points inthe movie. When Laura watches, her app shows a randomly picked subset.

Also, not all the questions might be concurrently used over all theviewers. If say 1000 questions are made, the first 100 are used over allviewers. This does not mean that a viewer gets 100 questions, only thather questions are picked from those 100. After some time (days orweeks), the second 100 are used. The question of when to introduce thenext batch of questions can be answered in part by the server seeing ifthe percentage of right answers rises and if the time taken to get thoseanswers falls. This might indicate that the answers are circulatingsocially and it is time to use new questions.

12] Multiple Mixed Realities (MMR);

So far, we considered MR as 1 instance of a MR game, with severalplayers (visitors and viewers). But the park can host multiple MRs (MMR)overlapping in the same physical space. A simple example is shown inFIG. 16. In park 200 is Drew 201 and his mobile device 202. Outside thepark is viewer Laura 210 with her device 211. The are playing in acommon instance of a MR game.

Now in the park is visitor Susan 163 with mobile device 164. Outside isBill 166 with his device 167. Susan and Bill are in the same MR game.This game is different from the game that Drew and Laura are in. Thereare 2 cases.

First. Drew and Laura are in instance Alpha of a MR game. Susan and Billare in a different instance Beta of the same MR game.

Second. Drew and Laura are in an instance of MR game Dead Monkeys. Susanand Bill are in an instance of a different MR game Hunt Dragons.

In what follows, we treat both cases. Players in any instance of any MRgame are assumed not to be able to see in their devices players orvirtual items in other instances of any MR game. In other words, eachinstance is its own universe. But in the real park are various realdevices controllable by visitors and viewers. A given device might berepresented differently in different instances. The point ofintersection between the instances is how to decide who (which player orplayers) controls the device at any given time.

FIG. 16 shows cart 209 in a current location, between Drew and monster161, which is in his game instance. Drew wants to capture the monster.Currently on his device screen, he cannot see it, because his instancedepicts cart 209 in such a way that it completely blocks the monster.Laura is on his team and wants to aid him. She can see the monster onher device, but she cannot message Drew to tell him. She can try tocontrol cart 209. If she can move it to Destination 165, Drew will beable to see the monster on his screen and hopefully capture it.

Note that the figure of cart 209 shows the cart as an open air vehicle,where someone outside on the left side of the cart can see thru to theright side. But what matters is the representation of the cart in theapp used by Drew. That can (and does in this example) show the cart asopaque in the left to right direction thru the cart.

Earlier was discussed where perhaps several viewers in a game instancemight have different opinions where to command the cart to go. Sovarious options were mooted to decide amongst viewers.

What is new in this section is the other instance of a MR game, withSusan and Bill. Bill is assumed to be trying to hinder Susan. He mightbe on a different team. In this instance exists Prize 162. Susan isstanding near it, as depicted. But she is assumed not to have seen ityet on her device 164. Perhaps she is not looking into it, or she is,and is pointing her device in a different location. If she looks in thedirection of prize 162 with only her eyes, she cannot see it because itis virtual. Bill does not want Susan to get the prize. He realises thatif he can move cart 209 to destination 165, then this blocks Susan'sview of the prize, when she uses her device to look in 162's direction.

So Bill and Laura, both viewers, in different games, in different roles(Laura trying to help, Bill trying to hinder) send essentially the samecommand to the same real device. Assuming the device gets no othercommands from other players, the server decides to let the device moveto 165. Ostensibly, the device is under the control of several viewers.Each might think it has exclusive control for some period of time.

FIG. 17 shows the 2 games Dead Monkeys 171 and Hunt Dragons 172. Thesecan be taken to be the server programs for those games. Dead Monkeys has3 instances. One instance has Laura 210 sending a command to cart 209.Another instance has Dinesh 174. Another instance has Tim 175. Thisassumes that each instance has only 1 player in each currently sending acommand to cart 209. Hunt Dragons has Bill 166 in one instance. It hasJill 176 and Zoe 177, both assumed to be in the same instance, and thisinstance differs from the instance that Bill is in. It also has Tanya178 in a third instance. The games 171 and 172 send their receivedcommands to server 173. The server decides which command gets run oncart 209. Games 171 and 172 can be considered to be the game servers foreach game.

Earlier in this section, we described (see FIG. 16) that Laura and Billare viewers, but this is not limiting. Several of the other players inFIG. 17 can be visitors.

Implictly, in earlier sections, when we said the park operates the cart,the decisions came from server 173.

A variant is where games 171 and 172 decide which of their receivedcommands gets send to server 173, reducing its burden.

More complicated scenarios can possible. All arise because instances areplayed in an overlapping area. This may be expected because of the costof the devices and designing games to use them. The park wants tomaximise use of its space and devices. A solution is to have differentgame instances being played in the same or overlapping area.

There can be numerous methods to decide whose command gets run on adevice.

One. If there are different instances of various games or of just 1 gamesending commands to the device, then pick an instance. This instance canhave several players sending different commands to the device. Useearlier methods to pick eg the most popular command and run it. Later,when deciding another command to send to the device, pick a differentgame instance. To give other players of other instances a chance to usethe device.

The picking of an instance can be done at random or by other means.

Two. Regardless of how many different instances want to control thedevice, each instance sends a set of commands to it. For all commandsfrom all instances, tote up the popularity of each command. The mostpopular command can come from different instances, as in FIG. 16. Runthis command. This method includes the case where a game instance hasseveral players in it sending the same command.

Three. To reduce the number of commands to consider, the commands for agiven game (coming from instances of the game) might be filtered bydiscarding those arriving too later after some cutoff time. In onelimit, just take the earliest of those commands.

Four. Extending method 3 across all games, just take the earliestcommand.

Five. In FIG. 17, game 171 might send all its commands to server 173.While game 172 could pick only 1 command to forward. In turn, the servercan use a separate method to decide amongst its received commands.

More methods are possible. The above are not meant to be limiting.

One extension is that a command can refer to multiple devices. A commandto move the cart in FIG. 17 might also have a subcommand that tells agarage door to open, so that the cart can enter the gargage. It is aquestion of (arbitrary) semantics whether the subcommand should be acommand in its own right or not.

I claim:
 1. A system of a theme park having electromechanical devicesremotely controllable by a visitor app; the visitor app being used by anonsite visitor for an activity in the park; the visitor app interactingthrough an electronic network with a viewer app; the viewer app beingused by an offsite viewer; the visitor app obtaining a virtual item fromthe viewer app; the visitor app presenting the virtual item to areification device in the park; the reification device giving a realitem to the visitor; the real item being a representation of the virtualitem; where the visitor app interacts with a plurality of viewer apps,each viewer app run by a different offsite viewer; the visitor appreceiving a plurality of virtual items from the viewer apps; the visitorapp picking one virtual item to be reified; where the visitor app remitsan amount in a currency of the visitor app to the viewer app from whichthe picked virtual item came from.
 2. The system of claim 1, where theamount is determined by the visitor using the visitor app.
 3. The systemof claim 1, where the amount is determined by the visitor app,independent of the visitor.
 4. The system of claim 1, where the virtualitem was found by the viewer app in an activity outside the park.
 5. Thesystem of claim 4, where the activity outside the park is a scavengerhunt.